NJ mayor conflicted on Christie role in bridge jam

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A Democratic mayor of a New Jersey town at the center of a traffic jam scandal says he wants to believe Republican Gov. Chris Christie had no involvement but is having a difficult time buying it.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich (SAHK'-oh-lich) on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday called Christie's assertion that he was unaware his staff engineered the closing of two lanes of the George Washington Bridge "a difficult pill to swallow."

Christie went to Fort Lee on Thursday to personally apologize to Sokolich after emails among the governor's aides appeared to show the lanes were blocked to punish the mayor for not endorsing Christie's re-election bid.

Sokolich says Christie was candid.

The mayor says, "I take him at his word. There's just a lot of stuff there, though."